The End of War
by LSL and rubberducky64
Summary: Something tragic has happened to Seto Kaiba. Something he never thought could happen. Only one person can help him through this, and that's me - Yugi Mutou. By LSL
1. Cell Phones

NOTE: Yugi Mutou's POV.  
  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!. Kazuki Takahashi does. Pooh on him.   
  
---   
  
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato   
  
---   
Isn't the telephone a great invention?   
I mean, look at what it can do.   
  
You can talk to people almost instantly after dialing a seven or ten digit number, and communicate awfully quickly over long distances. And it is very convenient – being found in the home or almost any public place. There are also 'cellular phones', also known as 'cell phones' that can be carried with you on your person. There are also special things you can have on your telephone if you choose, such as four way calling, caller ID, and on the little cell phones, even a camera.   
  
And it was cell phones that started this whole downward spiral.  
  
  
  
This whole downward spiral of a person whose name is Kaiba Seto.   
  
---   
Kaiba Seto always carries a cell phone with him. Now, this is against school regulations, but the teacher have figured out that if they cross him, they may not have a job the next week, as was the case of poor Mr. Sai. So they're pretty good about it. Besides, Kaiba's not rude or anything, it's not like he uses it in the middle of class and starts jabbering away while the teacher's giving a lecture or something. No, he really only uses it during break. And he only has it because he obviously needs to stay on top of things at Kaiba Corporation while he's at school. He usually didn't get many calls anyway, mostly one or two every day from his stockbroker or secretary, occasionally one from his younger brother Mokuba's school, on how well or how bad he's doing. The most recent one from his school was when he spilled red paint all over the piano in the music room.   
  
Now THAT was funny.   
  
But it's not like I eavesdrop on his calls, no, not really.   
  
It's just that I never have anyone to sit with at lunch and I need something to do.   
  
So, I watch Kaiba.   
  
He's really quite interesting to see, doing his work. I swear, he's mastered the art of typing one handed. He'll hold his sandwich (or whatever) in one hand, and type away with the other. It's really neat. But what's even better is when he has sushi. Now THAT'S neat. He can't get as much work done, so he gets all nasty to the teachers.   
  
But I have to mention – I don't hate him, and I'm not evil, I just find him interesting to watch, the school apathetic and all that.   
  
So today at lunch, after his usual call from his stockbroker, he was typing away and eating a chicken sandwich at the same time. Then his cell phone rang again. I was mildly surprised.   
  
So anyway, he pulled it out of his pocket, flipped it open, and said in a harsh voice, "Kaiba speaking." There was a brief pause.   
  
Then Kaiba said "What about Mokuba? Look, if he's put paint on the piano again, I'll – " He stopped, a confused expression on his face. "What? W- what do you mean?" He said bewildered. I was really listening now. Even though he was facing the other way, it was as if all I could hear in the crowded lunchroom was Kaiba's voice, and the slight buzzing noise from the phone when the person on the other line spoke.   
  
"Where did my brother go then?" Then Kaiba's face untensed, and it showed no emotion.   
  
"No, I'll... I'll be over as soon as I can." Then he flipped the phone shut, and put it back in his pocket as if the call had never happened. Folding his hands on the table, I saw his knuckles were white as his thin hands clasped each other. Just... sat there.   
  
Then he picked up his lunch, shut down his laptop and put it back in his briefcase, stood up, and left the lunchroom.   
  
Curious as I always am, I followed him out of the lunchroom, depositing my empty tray in the trashcan as I went by. I followed Kaiba into the main hall, and outside the front door. Ducking behind a huge stone pillar where I knew he wouldn't see me (hair and all), I watched as he leaned against the side of the building, one fist clenched around his metal briefcase, the other hanging loosely against his side. Letting his head fall back against the wall, he let out a deep, grief-stricken, frustrated sigh.   
  
"God damn... God damn... Mokuba... " Collapsing to the ground, briefcase falling down next to him, blue coat splaying out elegantly around him, his head in one hand, a light rain began to fall. I then saw Kaiba Seto do the very thing I never in my life would have even dreamed of him doing.   
  
I saw him cry.  
  
--- 


	2. Tears and Rain

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---   
  
I knew I shouldn't come out from behind my pillar and talk to Kaiba to find out what just happened – he'd kill me. Literally. So I tried thinking about what he'd say if I did.   
  
I must have been talking out loud or SOMETHING, because next thing I know, he's looking over at my pillar. He just stood up and he has a firm hold on his briefcase. Kaiba's eyes are like, all red and puffy. He looks mad and sad at the same time. No, I take that back – he looks homicidal.   
  
Shit.   
  
Making peace with the gods here...   
  
Wait, he's not looking very homicidal any more. He looks more – I can't BELIEVE this – lost and helpless. Kaiba Seto, THE Kaiba Seto, looking lost and helpless. This has got to be the most bizarre day of my entire life. "Yugi." He says softly. He's out of the rain, but he's soaked to the bone, and looks freezing, not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. Something has happened to him. Something really serious. "Yugi... Mokuba... oh – " Losing his composure totally, just losing it, he breaks down, right there, head on my shoulder.   
  
Awkward.   
  
I pat him on the back rather with embarrassment, because this is like, the guy with no emotions, and this is obviously really personal, so, I'm his nemesis and all, and I'm like, speechless.   
  
You know, if someone were to suddenly walk up and see us, they would see some pointy-haired confused midget with a drenched CEO sobbing his heart out on the midget's shoulder.   
  
And I haven't even a clue why Kaiba's crying.  
  
--- 


	3. Disarray

CHAPTER THREE  
  
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato ---   
  
Thankfully, nobody DOES walk by, and I'm stuck here in front of Domino High with some guy I don't even really know bawling on my shoulder.   
  
Isn't it amazing what situations I get myself into sometimes?   
  
So anyway, Kaiba cries and cries, and finally gets his act together a little bit. Well, at least he gets the sobbing under control. But he's still crying kinda hard, and the water on my jacket has soaked through to my shirt.   
  
But then the drowned rat on my shoulder starts talking.   
  
Well not talking, really, but more like whimpering incoherently so that I could understand him.   
  
"God, Mokuba... I don't believe... Never said anything... No idea he... How... Why... Where did I go wrong?" At that, a fresh surge of tears washes over Kaiba.   
  
---   
  
I don't know how long we sat there, rocking and drenched to the bone. The rain began to increase in ferocity, and that started to get behind my semi-enclosed pillar, soaking the already slightly wet me, and making my hair droop just a little.   
  
I was beginning to wonder if Kaiba's briefcase would rust when suddenly Mr. CEO himself just stood up, stopped crying, and grabbed his briefcase. His uniform was plastered to his slim frame. Then Kaiba took a deep breath and said,   
  
"Tell no one of this. But come..." He faltered, unsure whether or not to continue.   
  
"Come with me." Kaiba's voice lowered, and his eyes looked at the ground.   
  
"Please..."   
  
I weighed my options.   
  
On one hand, he had already sobbed on me, gotten me wet, and had me miss at least forty-five minutes of my chemistry class, that which I reallyreallyreally needed to pass if I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. AND he had put my mind in a freakish state of confusion and disarray.  
  
--- 


	4. Walking

CHAPTER FOUR  
  
  
  
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato   
  
---   
  
Once we're actually a good distance from the school, Kaiba pulls out his cell phone again. Flipping it open, he starts punching in a number I can't identify. Without even blinking, he starts speaking so professionally it's like he's been brainwashed, or something.   
  
"Is this Domino High? Kaiba Seto speaking. I would like to request permission to return home for the rest of the day. Yugi Mutou will be joining me."   
  
Woah. Like the nasty secretary Ms. Komogodo is gonna fall for that one.   
  
"It's a family emergency. Yes, I am aware that Yugi Mutou is not a member of my immediate family, but this...concerns him also."   
  
Concerns ME? Do I even wanna know why? Or is that some excuse for me to come along? With Kaiba, it could be anything.   
  
"What do you mean 'what is the emergency'? You have no right to know!" He snaps at her, and then his lips press together and form a really thin line.  
  
  
  
"Yes. Yes, I – I understand. We may or may not return tomorrow. It depends. Yes. Thank you." Kaiba then hangs up, and his lips un-press. He takes a really deep sigh as we round a corner onto the main road. We've been walking for twenty minutes already in the pouring rain, only it's not so bad now. Not so hard.   
  
After several more intersections, Kaiba makes a right onto some street that I've never heard of. But he looks like he knows where he's going. I don't bother to question him. What's the point? I mean, if this is the Kaiba I've observed and heard about, no one questions him. No one. So we continue on in silence, finally ending up in one of the nice neighborhoods near Domino Park. Mr. Gloomy turns right onto another street, and we end up in a street full of relatively nice houses.   
  
I know for a fact that this isn't where Kaiba lives.   
  
After a minute of walking down suburbia, Kaiba suddenly stops in front of one of the houses. It looks like nobody is living in it, but the front lawn has been kept nice. Kaiba walks up to the front door and starts digging around in a small potted plant next to the door. He seems to be looking for something, but what he would need buried in potted plant topsoil is beyond me.   
  
I stand there, feeling very awkward because I know this is personal and it's like I'm intruding.   
  
Finally, after what seems like hours (but which is really only more like thirty seconds or so), Kaiba finds what he was looking for.   
  
Turns out it was a key.   
  
He takes the key and inserts it into the keyhole of the front door. Jerking it hard to the left so it goes all the way around in the lock, the lock clicks and the door opens.   
  
Kaiba walks into the house and calls behind him,   
  
"Old house. I lived here until I was about ten. Come in, I'll get dry clothes for us and then we need to head out."   
  
I step in, and look around to see the saddest sight I've ever seen.  
  
--- 


	5. The Dark House

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---  
  
The scene before me looked like something Diane Arbus would have taken a photograph of.  
  
The entryway showed part of a living room, and you could see across to the back of the house to a sliding glass door that lead out into a backyard that looked like the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. And in front of me, as if frozen in time, was Kaiba Seto, dripping water, emaciated, and heartbreakingly sad looking.  
  
Everything was in shades of grey and blue. I nearly cried myself at the depressing nature of it all.  
  
But then time began again, and Kaiba started shedding his dripping clothes and motioned for me to do the same.  
  
Somehow the notion of stripping down in front of my arch-rival didn't appeal to me very much, but I did anyway.  
  
We both stripped down to our underwear, at which point Kaiba told me he'd be back in one moment and went upstairs, leaving me sopping wet in the entryway of some house I'd never been in before in nothing but my underpants.  
  
Right.  
  
To my great relief, Kaiba came back down carrying two sets of clothes, one apparently for me and another for himself. I took the clothes he handed me, and almost started putting them on when I realized I didn't have a towel. I brought this up, and Kaiba said we still had a ways to walk, and these clothes were for when we got there. So he wrung out our wet clothes so that they were now merely damp, and we put them back on, while Kaiba stowed the dry pairs in his briefcase.  
  
Then we went back outside and continued on our merry way until we reached the Kaiba mansion. There was an ambulance there, and several cars I didn't recognize, but Kaiba walked right up there like nobody's business and started talking in hushed tones with some guy I didn't recognize either. Then he motions for me to go inside with him, and me, being the nice little midget I am, followed.  
  
Kaiba leads me into the mansion, and we go up stairs and down corridors and oh, it's JUST SO BIG!  
  
Finally we reach our destination. It seems to be a bedroom... Oh, look, on the door, it says Mokuba!  
  
Mokuba's bedroom?  
  
What are we doing here?  
  
And why are there so many people around?  
  
Kaiba says, "We're going in." and all the people scatter.  
  
We step into the bedroom, and for a moment, I don't get it. Everything is in order, the bed is made, nothing on the desk except an envelope with Mokuba's handwriting on it addressed to Kaiba, and all the hangers in the closet are neat and tidy.  
  
And then I see it.  
  
And then I know why we're here.  
  
---  
  
RD64: Gomen that the chapters are so short, but LSL already wrote this and everything. She told me that it gathers suspense. I told her it was killing us!!! And she smiled.  
  
Sometimes I just don't understand her...  
  
But that's why we're friends! 


	6. The Cause of the Death

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---  
  
I'd torn my eyes away from it to see how Kaiba was reacting.  
  
He couldn't believe it either.  
  
He was kinda standing there, not sure how to react.  
  
His mouth was moving, making words, but he wasn't making a sound.  
  
I don't know what he would say anyway.  
  
There isn't anything TO say when it's right there, in front of you, so still and pale.  
  
The corpse.  
  
The corpse with the long, messy, hair.  
  
The corpse with the slit wrists.  
  
The corpse with the peaceful expression on its face.  
  
Like it's sleeping.  
  
Like it could wake up any moment, and suddenly start smiling, and ask you why you're standing there, numb with shock.  
  
It's leaning up against the bed, in front of it, in this sitting position.  
  
Then it all hits Kaiba.  
  
That corpse.  
  
That corpse is the corpse of...  
  
The corpse of Mokuba.  
  
---  
  
O________o 


	7. Out of Place

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---  
  
Mokuba is dead.  
  
I cannot believe it.  
  
Now I see why Kaiba was crying. The only family he had left has just died. And by the looks of the letter of the desk, it looks like it was a...  
  
A suicide.  
  
Closing his eyes for a moment, Kaiba slowly walks over to the desk and picks up the letter. He reads it quickly, and then sets it back down. He then makes his way one step at a time to his dead brother. Kneeling down beside him, he takes the body up in his arms and rocks back and forth, back and forth, stroking its long black hair, making some sort of garbled noise, somewhere between a sob and a scream.  
  
And once again, I stand there, feeling out of place, watching this. Mokuba was not my brother. Kaiba is not my friend. And yet he chose me. Well, I guess we sort of chose each other.  
  
He could have left me at the school after he had cried. He could have left me at the house. He could have ignored me completely.  
  
And yet...  
  
And yet here I am.  
  
---  
  
Dammit, LSL!! Say more!!!! You're killing us!!!! 


	8. The Funeral

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---  
  
It's been two days now.  
  
The coroner has ruled the death a suicide, and the funeral is to be held at eleven o' clock today.  
  
Kaiba didn't show up for school.  
  
Can't blame him.  
  
I wouldn't show up either.  
  
It's ten now.  
  
Better get ready.  
  
---  
  
It's raining again.  
  
Grandpa offered to drive me, but I... I couldn't accept.  
  
So here I am, sufficiently wet and gray looking.  
  
Perfect for a funeral, right?  
  
Ha.  
  
Ooh, lots of people are here. More than I expected. But where's Kaiba? Oh, wait, I see him.  
  
Damn. Poor guy, he looks wasted.  
  
I take my seat, somewhere in the front row otherwise I couldn't see. It's an outdoor funeral, and the drizzle is getting on everyone's nerves except Kaiba's. Wonder why?  
  
Then the guy stands up and walks to the podium in front of the coffin. Taking a deep breath, he begins to speak in this voice that for him, sounds very... unnatural. It sounded like he was being forced to say things he didn't want to say.  
  
So he delivered his eulogy with a silent crowd, and then he dismissed everyone. I noticed they didn't lower the coffin into the grave. So I stayed, ducking behind a tree and waited. Kaiba and the priest heaved the enormous coffin onto their shoulders and carried it a fair distance across the cemetery. They stopped at a part that hadn't really been used, and the slowly set the coffin into a grave under an old willow tree. Very secluded.  
  
Then the priest asked Kaiba something, and Kaiba shook his head. So the priest left. I stayed where I was, and watched Kaiba fill the grave with dirt and pebbles, finally putting final layer of grass seeds on top. Then he knelt and wept.  
  
I left.  
  
---  
  
RD64: One more chapter left to go, folks. Man, this is all really weird, isn't it?  
  
By the way, I think this is the longest chapter. 


	9. The End of War

"Only the dead have seen the end of war." – Plato  
  
---  
  
On my way home from school I pass the cemetery.  
  
To be more specific, I pass the back entrance to the cemetery.  
  
So I was walking home and I saw the willow tree under which they buried Mokuba. To my surprise, I saw Kaiba.  
  
He must have gotten here before me, because we had left school at the same time. His briefcase and his schoolbag were on the ground next to him, and he was sitting next to the grave, talking to it, I guessed.  
  
So I walked over to him.  
  
He looked up when he saw me, and grunted a hello.  
  
"Whatcha doing?" I asked him.  
  
"Yugi.. you know that letter Mokuba left for me?" He asked.  
  
I nodded.  
  
"Well, the letter consisted of a single quote. The quote was by Plato. It read – 'Only the dead have seen the end of war.' Mokuba always thought that my life was a war." Kaiba shifted to look at me better.  
  
"I was wondering, Yugi. I was wondering if right now, Mokuba is seeing the end of war. And I was wondering... What does it look like?"  
  
And I could give him no answer. 


End file.
